chubbmondrian.blogspot.com

The Tale of Chubbs (written by a Chubb)

2007-08-14T23:56:00.000-07:00

Chubb. What in the world is a Chubb you ask? Why, I am a Chubb! Yes, that’s me, that blue-skinned fella bobbing his head over there. I am plump, I know. Just don’t call me fat. We’re sensitive creatures too you know. My fellow Chubbs also come in yellow and red skin tones. If you ask me, my blue complexion is the best looking though, don’t you agree?

Anyway, I’m sure you are curious as to what creatures as cute as us, are doing in this forsaken land of rigid lines. I have a comrade here who is falling continuously. Another is reduced to tears. One chooses to travel on his skate scooter forever on, aimlessly. Even my twin brother pops his head up randomly to peek, trying to find a way out. As you can probably guess by now, we are trapped.

This predicament is literally hell for us. Being Chubbs, we are active creatures and constantly yearn for that feeling of freedom. This is why we advocate the arts, in the hope that it allows us to creatively express ourselves in the ways we deem fit. On the flipside, even in our world of design, we are faced with restrictions such as picky clients, the ever-changing industry and structured design briefs. I guess that this all in the long run benefits us, as it teaches us to widen our scope and adapt. Unfortunately, us being Chubbs, are slightly stubborn creatures and were inflexible.

Hence, we were banished to this realm of basic form and controlled structure, with nothing but grey and black lines staring back at us. We do not know how long this punishment shall last, but hopefully, the best of us would be able to learn from our mistakes and continue in our pursuit towards art and design. Therefore we, the Chubbs, must be strong and carry on. My brave friend here even leads by example, embarking on a realistic painting of a mannequin, the known basic model for drawing. Even though this dimension eats into his masterpiece, morphing it, he does not fret, but instead learns and makes use of this as a style. I must add it is indeed a rather interesting outcome isn't it?

As for those Chubbs who adopted escapism and tried to find an easier way out, we do not really know what has befallen them. All we could see was a blinding flash of white light. Word tells though, that they were bestowed greater pain, where they find themselves slowly evolving into angular creatures themselves! Slowly but surely, they would find their bodies jutting out at weird angles. It is almost as if this world demands that we fit in.

In conclusion to my rather long winded speech (for my poor, but lazy, mouth is beginning to ache from all this excessive exercise), as designers we must not be disheartened by any setbacks that we will encounter in our venture in search of happiness. Instead, holding strong faith onto our passion, we shall embrace the troubles we face and gain insightful knowledge from them. With such, we would be able to reap our much deserved rewards of satisfaction at the end of the day.

Chubbs, you can do it!

Rationale

2007-08-14T23:47:00.000-07:00

My design is entitled "Trapped". The outlook seems very cute and friendly. On the contrary, the message behind it is rather "emo" and actually relates to reality.

The graphic presents a combination of the minimalist and cubist style of Piet Mondrian, along with my own. Hence an interesting contrast and fusion can be seen here, between strong solid lines and cute organic characters, known as Chubbs. The colour scheme is such, as the black and grey lines bring out the solemn lifeless feeling of the atmosphere; while the louder colours of the characters, show their vibrant nature.

This design of mine is in fact an analogy of real life. Fellow designers would be able to relate well to the story I have written. I am sure that they too, like the Chubbs, have ever faced the situation where they feel restricted. This is an irony, as the design world is said to be one of freedom for self expressionism and creativity. However, we must persevere.

Through all these contrasts, I wish to evoke the feeling of confusion in people. As they read the tale of my Chubbs, they will realize that there is more to meets the eye, than just their cute appearance. They actually struggle to survive, trapped away from their earnest desires to pursue freedom and creativity, through art and design.

Fusing My Style

2007-08-12T23:37:00.000-07:00

I decided to inject my own style in the form of introducing a character.

In the past, I have also indulged in little characters of my own. As you can see, my style often revolves around that of being simplistic and cheerful.

This time round, I shall introduce to you, “Chubb”. “Chubb” is a plump character who looks very simplistic and seemingly cheerful. His name derives from the root word, chubby. However, on the contrary, he is not as joyful as we think, as we begin to learn of his unfortunate plight.

By making use of the angular lines as seen in Mondrian’s art as a background for my “Chubbs”, I shall present an interesting contrast of the rigid setting and the organic lively “Chubbs”. They would come in three different colour schemes, similar to how Mondrian makes use of solely primary colours.

The Artist

2007-08-12T23:32:00.000-07:00

Pieter Cornelius Mondriann (Piet Mondrian), a Dutch artist, was born in Amersfoot, Netherlands on 7 March 1872.

Before adopting his unique minimalist style, he was a teacher in primary education and practiced painting in his own time, back then consisting of mostly naturalistic landscapes. He then moved to Paris and changed his name to Mondrian (dropping a letter “a”). This was in representation of him departing his past life. Mondrian began exploring styles such as cubism and neoplasticism, and soon became an important contributor to De Stijl, a Dutch art movement.

Mondrian advocated abstraction in his art, exploring basic forms and discarding non-essentials. He can be inferred to be a very patient artist as his work was rendered with merely short neat brush strokes. Mondrian’s form of abstraction was so pure that his work consisted of only angular black lines and rectangles. He also experimented with bright colours, such as restricting to only the primary colours (red, blue and yellow). These can be clearly seen in one of his most famous paintings below.

Composition with Red, Yellow and Blue (1921)

The reason why I had chosen Mondrian as a source of inspiration was because I find it very intriguing how his minimalist style makes use of the simplest elements and plays with negative spaces to come up with a design. It is very hard to comprehend what Mondrian was trying to portray, as it has no relation to anything life-like. Clearly, complexity lies beneath this simple appearance. I too wish to present a design which has more than meets the eye.

Bibliography:

Piet Mondrian. (2007, July 27). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 3.00pm, 1 August 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piet_Mondrian

Piet Mondrian. In Abstract Art, Piet Mondrian. Retrieved 3:00pm, 1 August 2007, from http://abstractart.20m.com/Piet_Mondrian.html